Graduation Term
2018
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
School of Communication
Committee Chair
Joseph P. Zompetti
Abstract
The election of Barack Obama brought an uptick in discourse surrounding the notion of a “post-racial” America. This thesis will investigate post-racialism and the backlash surrounding its assumptions about the United States in the context of an act of resistance that took place at the University of Missouri in 2015. Black football players on the Missouri football team joined students in the #ConcernedStudent1950 activist group in calling for the resignation of university president Tim Wolfe. Threatening to abstain from athletic activity, Wolfe stepped down, signaling a victory for the minority student body. By utilizing Gramscian rhetorical theories and concepts, the events at Missouri will guide a conversation on the backlash to post-racialism, and the ways in which the student athletes participating in the football boycott illuminated the role of black Americans in issues of hegemony and racial inequality.
Access Type
Thesis-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Bauer, Taylor, "“Black Is Powerful ”: a Gramscian Rhetorical Analysis of Post-racialism at the University of Missouri" (2018). Theses and Dissertations. 841.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/841
DOI
http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2018.Bauer.T